Nicosia, Cyprus, October 17, 2026. The Ambassador of the Republic of Cuba to Cyprus, Rubén Pino Martínez, participated this Saturday in the inaugural session of the Congress of the Pan-Cypriot Council for Peace (2026).
The event "is being held under intense and peculiar circumstances, both for the homeland and worldwide," commented Mr. Tasos Costeas, President of the Cyprus Peace Council, in his opening remarks.
Amid armed conflicts, where efforts to diversify energy sources are accelerating, with the rising prices of energy and food, and when the burdens on households and businesses are increasing globally; the current conflicts “highlight the strategic interest of the major economies, on the one hand, and their distance from international law, the protection of human rights, and peace on the other,” reflected Tasos Costeas.
In this scenario where NATO is strengthening and expanding, where many European countries are increasing their military spending, investing in weapons, and turning their industrial base into a military one; “the promise of a Europe that would increasingly rely on diplomacy and peaceful cooperation vanished in the face of the reinforcement of the logic of war.”
As part of that call for world peace and its urgent collective appeal, the Congress also condemned the Israeli atrocities in Gaza and the West Bank, which “constitute an indictment against modern civilization and represent some of the most serious humanitarian tragedies of our time.”
The Cyprus Peace Council also turned its attention to the Caribbean and to blockaded Cuba, energy-surrounded and constantly threatened, denouncing the still-lingering intervention in Venezuela and the ongoing suffocating blockade on Cuba, which reveal the openly predatory face of U.S. leadership in the region.
A congress that – in the words of the Secretary-General, Mr. Charis Pashias – emphasized the particular importance that the current historical moment holds for their divided homeland. “As the All-Cypriot Peace Council, we have the duty to fight for the liberation and reunification of our land and people, looking toward cooperation between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots.”
An opening session in which speeches, tributes, and cultural proposals were accompanied by calls to be alert about the rise of neo-Nazism, racism, and the growing political influence of the far right, whose evidence and manifestations pose a real threat to European and global peace.
Present at the evening were the Honorable Ambassador of the State of Palestine in Cyprus, Mr. Abdallah Attari, the member of the Secretariat and the Political Bureau of AKEL, Giorgos Loucaides, the General Secretary of the Pan-Cyprian Federation of Labor (PEO), Sotiroula Charalambous, and Eleni Evagorou, General Secretary of the Pan-Cyprian Women’s Movement (POGO), along with a large group of collaborators and members of the Peace Council from across the island.
Embassy of Cuba in Cyprus.